The School of Humanities
offers an emphasis in Critical Theory that can be appended
to the Philosophy track. Those interested in the emphasis
begin by taking the three-quarter Critical Theory Workshop.
With the recommendation of a workshop instructor or a Critical
Theory faculty member in the Philosophy Department, students
may then apply to the Critical Theory Committee for admission
to the emphasis. Students admitted to the Critical Theory
emphasis must complete requirements in addition to those
of the Ph.D. program in Philosophy. For further information
click here.
The Department of Philosophy
and the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science jointly
administer an exchange program with the University of Salzburg.
The program has two parts. The Scholarly Exchange provides
opportunities for our faculty and graduate students to visit
Salzburg and for faculty and graduate students from Salzburg
to visit one or the other of the UCI units. The Program
also sponsors joint conferences, held alternately in Irvine
and in Salzburg; these are co-sponsored by Salzburg and
the UCI Interdisciplinary Program in the History and Philosophy
of Science.
A graduate student must
normally have been advanced to candidacy in order o be eligible
for the Salzburg Exchange. Selected students spend one semester
in Salzburg, usually teaching one course in the area of
their dissertation topic. An upper-division course may be
taught in English, but lower-division courses must be taught
in German. (Some previous visitors have learned serviceable
German by attending a Goethe institute during the preceding
summer.) Typically, a Salzburg visitor will receive a Salzburg
Fellowship intended to cover travel expenses, and a stipend;
those who teach while in Salzburg will also receive a salary
intended to cover living expenses (including health and
dental insurance).
Application should be made
to the Philosophy Department by November 1 and should include
a curriculum vitae and syllabi for possible courses to be
taught.
The Scientia Workshop,
the successor to the Cartesian Circle,
based at UCI but including faculty and graduate students
from other universities in Southern California, regularly
organizes and supports various activities promoting the
study of the history of philosophy from the Ancient Greeks to Kant. These activities include discussion groups, translation projects, dissertation workshops and occasional sponsorship of conferences.
Scholars who find themselves
in the area and wish to participate should contact Nicholas
Jolley.
The journal Topoi
, under the editorship of Professor Ermanno Bencivenga,
has long had its home in the UCI Department of Philosophy.
For more journal information and submission guidelines,
click
here.
Topoi’s
main assumption is that philosophy is a lively, provocative
activity, constantly challenging our received views, questioning
our inherited habits, and elaborating on how things could
be different, in other stories, in counterfactual situations,
in alternative possible worlds. Whatever its ideology, whether
with the intent of uncovering a truer structure of reality
or of soothing our anxiety, of exposing myths or of following
them through, the outcome of philosophical activity is always
the destabilizing, unsettling generation of doubts, of objections,
of criticisms.
It follows that this activity
is intrinsically a dialogue, that philosophy is first and
foremost philosophical discussion, that it requires bringing
out conflicting points of view, paying careful, sympathetic
attention to their structure, and using this dialectic to
articulate one's approach, to make it richer, more thoughtful,
more open to variation and play. And it follows that the
spirit which one brings to this activity must be one of
tolerance, of always suspecting one's own blindness and
consequently looking with unbiased eye in every corner,
without fearing to pass a (fallible) judgment on what is
there but also without failing to show interest and respect.
Topoi's structure
is a direct expression of this view. To maximize discussion,
we devote most or all of each issue to a single topic. And,
since discussion is only interesting when it is conducted
seriously and responsibly, we usually request the collaboration
of a guest-editor, an expert who will identify contributors
and interact with them in a constructive way. Because we
do not feel tied to any definite philosophical theme (or
set of them), we choose the topic with absolute freedom,
looking for what is blossoming and thriving, occasionally
betting on what might partly through our attention -- begin
to blossom and thrive. And because we do not want our structure
to become our own straightjacket, we are open to contributions
not fitting the topos, and do not rule out in principle
the possibility of topic-less issues.
